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For Grateful Dead’s Final Shows, Long, Strange Trip Ends in Sea of Mail

Band’s Fans Go Retro to Snag Tickets; Psychedelic Envelopes

By

Mike Ayers and

Jarrard Cole

Updated Feb. 15, 2015 3:53 p.m. ET

STINSON BEACH, Calif.—Time has always been elastic for Grateful Dead fans in thrall to tunes that last more than 45 minutes and shows that go on for hours.

So when the group announced it would mark its 50th anniversary in the summer of 2015 with three final performances, Deadheads took the old-school route, flooding the band’s ticket service here with handcrafted requests rather than clicking online.

Since the shows were announced a month ago more than 60,000 envelopes—many painstakingly adorned with the Dead’s typical psychedelic skulls and skeletons—have poured into a post office box in this picturesque Marin County spot a half-hour from the Golden Gate Bridge. The post office usually receives 7,000 letters a week. “It was a big shock to us,” Jim Harvey, the Stinson Beach postmaster, said of the vivid No. 10 envelopes festooned with Magic Marker sketches and fanciful lettering. “It indicated that the Grateful Dead culture is alive and well.”

The response to the three shows at Soldier Field in Chicago over the July Fourth weekend also blindsided the Dead’s ticket Svengali, Frankie Accardi-Peri. For more than 30 years, Ms. Accardi-Peri has fulfilled the band’s mail-order ticket requests. In January, when envelopes started pouring in, she stored the mail trays in her 24-year-old son’s bedroom. (“I had to use quite a bit of acrobatics in order to get to my bed,” Jesse Peri said.) With more than 100 overflowing trays piling up, Ms. Accardi-Peri realized she needed a hand—many hands. After a few phone calls, help was on the way. She moved the operations to a bigger house and expanded her staff to 60 people, from six.

ENLARGE

The late Jerry Garcia

Most music fans—even the Grateful Dead’s colorful and idiosyncratic enthusiasts—turn to the Internet or Ticketmaster rather than fuss with money orders and self-addressed stamped envelopes. “People don’t do mail order anymore,” Ms. Accardi-Peri said. But “all of a sudden, I can sell out the stadium five times over.”

Already, Ms. Accardi-Peri and her helpers have fielded requests for more than 400,000 tickets. For each of the shows, where the Dead will be joined by Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti, Soldier Field can hold about 61,500 people. The Chicago stadium hosted the last Grateful Dead show, in July 1995. A month later, 53-year-old Jerry Garcia, the singer and guitarist, died.

Mr. Garcia started the Grateful Dead in 1965 with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann. The group gave rise to psychedelic rock and over three decades amassed a following with hits such as “Truckin’ ” and “Casey Jones.”

The Dead celebrated the counterculture and cultivated a laid-back rapport with audiences that lapped up their often-meandering performances. The band encouraged fans to record shows (those who did were called “tapers”) and inspired many to devote their lives to attending shows. In 1983, with concerts selling out in minutes, leaving many disappointed, the Dead set up a homespun mail-order-ticket system.

Ms. Accardi-Peri came aboard a year later. She said the band signed over the operation to her and three other people after Mr. Garcia’s death. Since then, the company has handled mail-order requests for Dead-affiliated bands like Mr. Weir’s Ratdog, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Further. These days, Ms. Accardi-Peri is the only one of the original four running the operation.

ENLARGE

Frankie Accardi-Peri with a mail tray full of ticket requests to deal with. Photo: Jarrard Cole/The Wall Street Journal

Today, with envelopes still unopened, concert organizers postponed an online ticket sale planned for the second week of February, and pushed back the start of sales on Ticketmaster to Feb. 28.

The frenzy hasn’t infected the sun-filled Stinson Beach bungalow where Ms. Accardi-Peri keeps the mail moving. On a recent morning, sorters worked to the sound of the nearby ocean, while CDs of the Dead’s 1990 Spring Tour box set played on a stereo in the kitchen. Although the makeshift headquarters are chock-a-block with mail trays, the sorters themselves are relaxed and cheerful, eager to swap stories about the Dead.

No shoes are allowed inside, so sneakers and boots litter the front steps. Indoors, dozens of helpers, including many who worked on tickets for the Dead’s tours in the 1980s and early ’90s, pad around, combing through envelopes on tables covered in tie-dyed cloths. Trays of envelopes spill into every room, covering the kitchen island and a piano. Recently, one worker spotted a ticket request from Eric Vandercar, a 53-year-old bond expert who died this month in a New York train accident. The sorters set up a tiny memorial beside his envelope: a candle, his photo and a vase of greenery.

ENLARGE

Letters arrive adorned with psychedelic art work, a tribute to the band. Photo: Jarrard Cole/The Wall Street Journal

Ms. Accardi-Peri, draped in a shawl and often waving a wooden stick she calls her magic wand, puts on pink-framed glasses to look at envelopes. She discussed generally how requests are sorted but declined to give specifics about which are fulfilled or rejected and why. Scalpers are a perennial concern, and she worries that spelling out the selection process might help them. Asked who makes the final call on who gets tickets, she answered, “It’s magic!” She showed off some of her favorite decorated envelopes that weren’t rewarded with tickets.

For some Deadheads, requesting tickets by mail was a trip down memory lane. For others, like Josh Brady, it was a new experience. “I went this route because I knew there would be high demand for these tickets and this is one more shot at getting me in the door,” said Mr. Brady, a 33-year-old contractor in Eugene, Ore. “Also, it’s fun to do the old-school mail order.”

On their website, the Dead’s mail-order operation sets out amiable but specific instructions (“Decorated envelopes are always welcome”) for fans to submit their money orders and preferences for particular shows. The site repeats the instructions in a video (“Hey there, Deadheads!”) starring Jesse Peri as a frustrated ticket-seeker trying to play a videocassette from his computer and phone. He finally unearths a VCR—in a box labeled “Jurassic Period”—from the basement, and plays the tape with the instructions.

For those who don’t get tickets, the producer of the Chicago shows is looking into how fans around the world can experience the Grateful Dead without being there. “We’re hoping to do cool things for people who can’t get a ticket [and] enable people to experience it in their own way,” said music impresario Peter Shapiro, who is producing the concerts.

Now it is up to Mr. Harvey, the Stinson Beach postmaster, to make sure the envelopes—some with tickets, some not—make it back to fans. “Today they brought in about six trays with 500 letters each,” he said. “It’s just wonderful to see the postal service being valued with so many people for an important part of their life.”

Corrections & Amplifications

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Soldier Field can hold 71,500 people.

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80 comments

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William Singer subscriber

Brings back great memories. I remember receiving tickets through mail order. It was always great to tear open the envelope and gaze at the psychedelic artwork on the ticket in rapt anticipation of the forthcoming experience that that trip tic represented. Gives me tingles today.

TERRY PRICE subscriber

I first experienced the Dead while stationed in the Navy in SoCal, in 1970. A friend made me listen to the album, "Live Dead". It took awhile, and several "listens" to truly appreciate Jerry and friends. The first two songs of Live Dead are still my favorite, and I still listen to them from time to time; to relive a truly unique period of time in my life.

Tomas Pajaros subscriber

“It’s just wonderful to see the postal service being valued with so many people for an important part of their life.”

yes, that's exactly the message i took away from this story too. It's all about the wonderfulness of the United States Postal Service.

Ray Bernard subscriber

Why are so many being so critical....take their music for what it is , the best back ground music for 1970's college frat parties! A time gone by....compared to today's "popular" artists, the Dead should live forever.

Andrew Wilt subscriber

The term deadhead is so appropriate.

Dan Morris user

I liked the Dead and saw them live 3 times when I was a teenager and in my early 20's. I'm not sure what I ever heard in their music, because it's really rather vapid. This story demonstrates what they mean by, " arrested development".

Gerald Hanner subscriber

Is Jerry Garcia going to put in an appearance?

Richard Douglas subscriber

The horror.........the horror...........

PAUL NOLAN subscriber

The first time I saw the Dead was 1969 at the Filmore West in San Francisco. I was 19 and just returned from 12 months in Vietnam Nam. This concert taught me about peace and love and influenced me for the rest of my life. Make fun if you like but peace and love were a lot better than war and destruction. There is no love today, just a lot of anger. I'm glad to have lived during that time. You all can have your rappers and your gangstas. I'll take the Dead any day.

Robert Young profilePrivateuser

Would love to go from Maui. Saw the dead in Hollywood in the Pallidium. Wonderful concert with table service upstairs. Chicago is great and somewhere in the West would be great. Aloha and have fun.

Susan Amon subscriber

If all of these folks had a basic music education, one that included intonation, I wonder if the "Dead" would have been so popular?

DAVE REISSFELDER subscriber

sheesus. 50 years? I mean....

jerome rathskeller subscriber

It was over for me when Pig Pen died.

jerome rathskeller subscriber

I have all 500,000 of their bootleg recordings. Not!

Leonard Lovallo subscriber

Jerry Garcia died nearly 20 years ago at which point the Grateful Dead ceased to exist; the Dead without Garcia is like the Stones would be without Jagger.

Stephen Craffen subscriber

Never understood the fascination with them their music was mediocre at best.

jerome rathskeller subscriber

Tie dye clothes sure are ugly.

BRIAN BROADBENT subscriber

Haters gonna hate. The Grateful Dead has put more smiles on more people than any of you haters can possibly imagine. Come hell or high water, I will be there. #Faretheewell

Stephen Phillips subscriber

"Already, Ms. Accardi-Peri and her helpers have fielded requests for more than 400,000 tickets...." Fifty years later, that speaks volumes unto itself. You either like it or you don't. Apparently there are a few that still do.

Toni Mack subscriber

As previously noted, I attribute the Dead's popularity and longevity to the fact that everyone could and probably did go to their concerts stoned.

Maybe you could get stoned just being in the audience.

Richard Wright subscriber

Back in the late sixties, my wife and I were browsing along Haight Street and were just leaving a "head shop" when we noticed there were no cars on the street. People were just walking down the street so we joined the crowd to see what was going on. Near the end of the street was an old movie theater and right in front of it the Dead had parked two flat body trucks end to end where they set up and proceeded to give a free concert. We were sitting about 25 feet from Jerry Garcia. Very cool, not to mention the "cigars" that kept circulating by! Nice memories indeed.

Anthony Rags profilePrivateuser

It's useless to try and explain the euphoric feeling of entering a GD concert in the summertime. With or without drugs.

Those who don't understand the Dead never will.

Peace

Dirk Dreux subscriber

The Dead is and always a big "So what?"

Gilbert Zimmerman, Jr. subscriber

Every song sounded like every other song.

Michael Assam subscriber

I went to my first dead show in 1985 at Irvine Meadows. Then saw them again at UNLV with Carlos Santana, and at Shoreline in the Bay Area during the early 1990's. To this day, they remain the best shows I have ever seen.... hands down. Thanks for the memories Jerry!

Gary Stutz subscriber

Ken Kesey turned Garcia on to LSD at Stanford in the early '60's. Kesey moved to La Honda, and after the famous trip the Merry Pranksters took on the bus Further, he had the Dead play at his Acid Tests. LSD was legal in those days. The Deads' music was much better high on acid than it was in the cold grey light of dawn.

Read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe and Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion to get a picture of the early counter culture. Both were published in 1968.

Caroline McGhan subscriber

Sounds iike a neat way to get a ticket, but not a sure way. We didn't have the internet when we got tickets to the last few show at Soldier Field in 1995 but if I was interested in going to this one I think i would take the most certain option! Great article.

Jeffrey McCloskey subscriber

Buckeye Lake, a venue outside Columbus, Ohio can hold over 100,000 people. The Dead played there many times.... Though not Soldier Field it would be a great venue and nearly twice as many could see the show!

Arvid Raulinaitis subscriber

More corrections and amplifications:

If you want to list bands from the era not associated with drugs, you must include Frank Zappa. His pronouncements against chemical/botanical shortcuts are well-known.

The name of the other band is correctly spelled Furthur. Maybe your spellchecker kicked it out.

Susan Amon subscriber

@Ray Bernard I totally agree with you. I suppose you are responding to my previous post. I was responding to those who think the G.D. are some sort of high-art: a life experience for them for sure!

Eric Snyder subscriber

@Ray Bernard Spot on! Some people seem to be always finding fault, losing sleep at the thought of someone else having a good time. I am becoming fatigued by internet opinions....

AARON ECKSTEIN subscriber

@Susan Amon Self-taught or learned out of school is not legit or has no merit? Do you or do you not like at least some of their music?

DAVE REISSFELDER subscriber

@Stephen Craffen

Um, yeah. They have - at best - 5 decent songs I can listen to now. It was never about the music though was it.

Of course, I give JG credit - one of my favorite quotes comes from him:

"The trick isn't to do something better than everyone else does it; the trick is do something that no one else is doing."

BRET DALINE subscriber

@Gilbert Zimmerman, Jr. The Grateful Dead played several times at OSU in Corvallis, Oregon in the late 60's and early 70's - I saw three of those shows and saw them in an outdoor show in Veneta, Oregon in 1972 at what is widely considered to be their best concert. I hate to say it but you are correct, the songs all sounded alike.

Anthony Zipple subscriber

@joe McDermott Ha, ha! You must have played Scrooge in another life. Bah! Humbug! And your bad attitude is complicated by your obvious ignorance.

Art Lieberman user

@Joe McDermott all I want to know, is are you kind?

Eric Snyder subscriber

@Jeffrey McCloskey I was able to see the band at Buckeye Lake, and I agree that it would have made a fantastic place for these shows. Since a large part of the attraction are the people who show up, the more the merrier!

Alfred Barclay subscriber

Zappa not on drugs? Are you kidding me?

Anyone who has ever listened to his insane "music" would find that hard to believe.

And he was entirely sober when he named his two children "Dweezil" and "Moon Unit," right?

jerome rathskeller subscriber

@Arvid Raulinaitis I liked Zappa when he played his bicycle on The Steve Allen Show.

Daniel Herkes subscriber

@Arvid Raulinaitis Frank Zappa also described himself as a "practical conservative." He was a standout musician and composer too.

peter ROBB subscriber

@AARON ECKSTEIN @Susan Amon GD worst 60s band, hands down. The Beatles had no formal music education and could not read music yet look what they created. Their worst song is better than any "greatest hits" from gd.

Susan Amon subscriber

@AARON ECKSTEIN I was a professional musician in the Bay Area. Trained at a world class conservatory. I also grew up in Marin and quite often saw these guys around town. I think their music is pedestrian compared to music around the world present and historic in terms of being musically creative: harmonically, rhythmically, etc. The Dead was/is a cult following and relevant to a narrow time period in history. Frankly I could hardly listen to them they were so bad.

Ed Dravo subscriber

@BRET DALINE @Gilbert Zimmerman, Jr.

Nodding does that to you.

Richard Tarbell subscriber

@BRET DALINE @Gilbert Zimmerman, Jr.

Not if you are sober.

Joe McDermott subscriber

@D lucas Mcdonough So sorry to harsh your mellow. Go fire up a doobie and drop a tab, you'll feel better.

Arvid Raulinaitis subscriber

@Alfred Barclay Alfred, if you care, I'd suggest you might dispel some of your misconceptions by reading The Real Frank Zappa Book written by Frank Zappa.

Most people assume he spent his creative life on some kind of drugs, but that's simply not the case.

He and his wife didn't name their children by accident.

YouTube contains some interesting interviews, too.

Most of his music is genius; some of it makes me wish he never heard of Edgar Varese.

Susan Amon subscriber

@peter ROBB The Beatles had real talent! I am not insinuating that a formal musical education means that one is necessarily a good musician.

By the way, I do get why people like the GD as I had many conversations with people who tried to convince me other wise. The GD created a sense of community through an environment where personal boundaries dissolved. They use music, drugs, and marketing to create a "following" and their incredible success at this is evidenced here. Richard Wagner was the master of this in his own time but he actually wrote good music!

scott smart subscriber

@peter ROBB @AARON ECKSTEIN @Susan Amon sorry you guys don't get it

Anthony Zipple subscriber

@susan Amon We were so pleased that you avoided us. You sound self absorbed and boring.

The Grateful Dead

CHRISTOPHER MEUCHNER subscriber

Do you even know what you're talking about...?

AARON ECKSTEIN subscriber

@Susan Amon

I understand your argument and your points; I'm satisfied you agree a formal, quality musical training is not absolutely essential in order to produce 'good' music. I did and do like much of the GD's music and performances notwithstanding their music's repetitiveness and often faltering attempts at complexity. (Perhaps that 'often' should be 'sometimes'.) People's tastes do vary, they're nearly as distinctive as their faces..

Susan Amon subscriber

@Anthony Zipple I didn't avoid the G.D. as they were in my back yard! Too bad you can't see the bigger picture of art....

Anthony Zipple subscriber

@susan Amon Not just self absorbed and boring! You sound arrogant and presumptuous as well. My post says nothing about my broader knowledge of art. Why would you assume that it is limited? I suspect that you are also a bit insecure.

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